At lunch one day while I was browsing
through books at Clerkenwell Tales my eye was caught by a very
attractive small book called 'Shire'. When I saw it was written by
Ali Smith I immediately bought a copy as a present for my friend as
her birthday was soon. However, I only just recently got a copy for
myself. I'd been greatly anticipating reading it as it's a book of
four new stories, the first story 'the beholder' I had heard Smith
read at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year. It's a really
heartfelt and funny story about someone who discovers that she's
slowly turning into a tree. She has numerous problems in her life,
but these become superseded by the beauty that's growing within her.
The next two stories are half-fiction half-tribute to individuals.
'the poet' gives an account of the life of Olive Fraser, a Scottish
poet who published a scattering of things throughout her life, but
never came to great prominence as she was plagued by illness and
financial troubles as Smith bluntly lists: “Bad headaches. Grey
skin. Nosebleeds. Concentration lapses. Unexplained illness. Fatigue.
Drifts from job to job.” Smith creates a story around this of the
poet as a girl discovering music in the binding of a book she throws
against a wall. 'the commission' is a much more overtly person story
than I'm used to reading from Smith. Here she pays details her
mentorship from a scholar named Helena Shire. The academic supports
Smith during her time at university by giving her money as well as
talking to her about literature and ideas. The story travels back and
forth throughout scenes in Smith's life showing her development and
how Helena helped shape the person she's become. The final story is a
short piece called 'the wound' which relates directly to an anecdote
in Smith's previous book Artful where she discusses art as an
exchange that “can be a complex and wounding matter” and cites as
an example a poem from the late 1500s. In this poem and Smith's story
a man borrows mischievous Cupid's wings and bow and arrow. He flies
up into the air filled with jubilation but accidentally shoots
himself. This parable shows how art and love can transmogrify the
individual by causing pain and through that pain understand the world
and other people all the greater.

Like much of Smith's work Shire doesn't
fit into a neat classification as it is at once literary fiction,
biography, theory, philosophy and memoir. What carries us through all
this fascinatingly varied terrain is Smith's engaging and innovative
voice. Other authors' writing would probably become scattered and
confused trying to handle so many subjects, but Smith masterfully
carries us through her narratives making every story she touches upon
immediate and moving. I'm continuously in awe of her daring and
powerful ability to make meaningful connections.